Book 1 of the Foundation trilogy by Isaav Asimov.

Illustrated by Alex Wells. 
Published by the Folio Society, 2012.

 

Binding completed in 2025. 

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This binding will be on display at my vendor booth at WorldCon from August 13th to 17th in Seattle, then will be available for $1,000.  

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Design Statement

To complement the aesthetic of the interior illustrations, I chose a mid-century modern color palette for this binding, also an intentional nod to the era in which the series was first published, the 1950s.

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The lines on the covers symbolize the Foundation (back cover) and the Galactic Empire (front cover), each tooled with its own colors and visual character, chosen to reflect the nature of the respective group. In sociology, “mass action” refers to uncoordinated yet simultaneous behavior by large numbers of people, a concept central to the book’s premise, where a character predicts the future through mathematics based on these patterns. This idea inspired the flowing, organic form that stretches across the binding which is loosely based on a murmuration of starlings. Far from the main form are a few dots representing Outliers. The three crises faced by the Foundation are tooled along the spine.

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The interior is quiet with pale pink and white endpapers. The pastedowns feature a single gold line that continues from the cover, paired with subtle touches of iridescent paint along the edges. The flyleaves mirror the pastedowns, with a complementary foil line that descends in counterpoint to the gold.

 

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